Boy is Sony's PlayStation Vita in for a brilliant year

Digitally Downloaded writes: "Wow. Just wow. If there is any justice in this industry Sony is going to perform a complete 180 degree turn on the Vita and come out so competitive, if not outright on top."
(PS Vita, Sony)

They clearly will. Look at the support Soul Sacrifice is getting. And since 90% of the Vita games are currently being made in Japan, they really have no choice. I bet that we'll see almost every one of those titles announced today over here by the end of 2013. Except for FFX HD (SE, just being SE) and the Legend of Heroes one.

Also, Aksys, Atlus, NISA and GungHo haven't announced their 2013 lineups yet. So we can expect more localizations on the horizon.

I love how shutupandtakemymoney gets all butthurt at your comment that only states the TRUTH lol He isntantly assumes your a MS fan just because you said something about the vita. THis is N4G daily though, theres only a few here thast will have a gaming convo without getting their feelings hurt. Its funny though

I do like me some Halo, I can't deny that! Right now though I'm busy playing my backlog of ps3 exclusives that I missed this gen since I only got my ps3 in October.
Back on topic however, Vita had a lousy 2012, so of course there weren't going to be alot of headlines like this one then. I don't see how that is trolling.

Actually having experience with the system and understanding what it's about. Being knowledgeable about the handheld's library, instead of that amazingly WRONG assertion of "haz no gaemz" that continues to be put forth.

As a gaming device, the Vita had a brilliant year last year. It saw abysmal sales, but that DOESN'T AT ALL negate how good the device and its library were, overall.

What? Call of Duty wasn't good? I guess that overshadows all the games that WERE good, somehow? So Gravity Rush, Uncharted, Need for Speed, Unit 13, Assassin's Creed, and everything else don't count?

Oh, but we can't count any games that are remakes or ports... or have the same name as a game/franchise on home consoles. This rule only works for the Vita though; we can't discount the 3DS' greatest games because they're ports or remakes, since it's a Nintendo handheld.

The TRUTH is that the Vita had a great year last year in all the ways we gamers should care about. Sales should, honestly, be the LAST thing on our minds.

what GoodGuyJamal said was actually the truth, im amazed about how many vita fanboys are in complete denial. Last year the vita underperformed in every aspect, for gods sake Sony THEMSELVES adjusted expected sales from 16M units to 10 million(How do you estimate and get it 50% off the mark??)

Even though im rarely a fan of japanese games, i sure hope these new games will make the Vita flourish.

Sweet if the Vita drops low enough I'll be insanely tempted to pick one up. It would have to be a deal on par with Amazon's Black Friday bundle at $170. I passed on that because I'm not a fan of the Assassin's Creed series whatsoever. Nothign against the series. I just don't want to have to play that game.

Target already currently has them on sale with a lego game for $200 but meh. i'd rather not own/play that game.

I don't really want to spend any money, but at $200 it's soo cheap!!

I'm actually tempted to buy one to maybe play older games. The newer games feel like they're trying too hard to emulate the power of the PS3. I'd rather they just took a step down and impressed me with something like a 2d rpg sidescroller with amazing visuals and fun touchscreen controls. Something like castlevania or the old metroids. I'd say if that new castlevania game came to the vita, i'd be more inclined to get one.

Actually I would probably pick up Rockstar's PSP games first. I never owned a PSP either so i'm wondering if those are Vita compatible. Probably just best off not spending any money and waiting to get lost in GTA V in September.

Soul Sacrifice will be teh only major exclusive that would really push me to pick up a Vita. Mercenaries doesn't look that appealing to me. Those little thumbticks look like they'd cramp my hands after an hour or two.

Vita may be kind of a flop saleswise, but boy have I had some good times with it. And with these news, I say either the Vita picks up its pace saleswise, or Rocky Anderson will turn in his grave... or living room.

The new ad team is better for one reason. More gamers should now hopefully notices Sonys great AAA games. See in the past they went unnoticed thanks to bad advertising and gamers missed out on great games. Hopefully this doesnt happen this time round meaning great news for gamers.

@Sheikh Yerbouti That is why those ads were good. Really Sony should have really looked from the beginning of this gen and figured maybe try a different approach. Marketing is important to getting people to consider a console. The lack of proper marketing, especially for many games, hurt Sony and the PS3 this gen...

No, they really don't.... The cost of living in Japan is very high. However, during Otoshidama, which is akin to new year's holiday, children receive a large sum of money from their parents/grandparents. We're talking upwards of a 1000 US dollars at times (or the equivalent of US dollars in Yen).

Agreed they love there JRPG's and compared to what Nintendo announced other than Monster hunter PS Vita has the 3ds beat in Japan for new releases. Outside? Maybe not however we may see a couple of other none jap dev games for Vita at US press conference.

This was really focused on Japan and they delivered on that. Lots of games they showed are coming out in the next few months. Soul Sacrifice looks amazing if that doesnt sell vita's in Japan then i dont know what kind of new IP would. Plus instant game collection for vita is finaly hitting Japan. Sony go pony up the cash for Dragonquest 8 on vita.

@a_a Ps3 has had the best line up of games since 2008 with 2012 being a off year which still brought us Journey ,Unfinished swan and Tokyo Jungle.

I don't think the price cut materially improves Vita's situation in japan. The $199 is still not with memory card price cut, similar deals were already available over Christmas to no real effect, and there's still no sustaining system seller games on the horizon...

Lol are you stupid? The vita didn't much better then even Sony expected over the holiday season, especially black Friday! A permanent price cut plus games Japanese gamers actually want to play will drastically improve vita sales. I already see Phantasy Star Online 2 being a driving factor let alone all the other appealing Japanese games they're gonna get.

It was year of the playstation every year this console cycle and it never happened. It was the year of the psp and that never happened, PSP Go, now we get "Boy is Sony's PlayStation Vita in for a brilliant year" LOL.

Just let things happen and stop with the hype. It's a good machine but maybe not worth investing in if you have a ps3 or waiting for the ps4. Sony, just comes in too high on the price end and due currently that does not cut it for some but boy they make sexy sh1t.

I reckon Vita's big news will be with it's PS4 interconnectivity when its announced on February 20th. OT. Hopefully , I'll get my hands on the sony xperia Z Ive preordered, on February 28th. My real Sony Trinity is coming - PS4, Vita and xperia z; all covered with a rich Gaikai sauce lol

I still need to get a Vita, but hearing about a price drop, I hope it also happens in the UK. I can get a Vita for £175 at the moment and that's the Wifi model. Other places are selling it at like £200, £209, etc...

I'd be happy if they just dropped the price in all other places to £175 or something, that way I can buy it from my favorite online retailer and get money back.

I am really interested in Soul Sacrifice, PSO2 I will definitely pick up, I played a bit of the Beta when they didn't block IP's and it was quite fun. Don't forget a possible localization of Gods Eater 2, Ragnarok Odyssey (EU), Tales of Hearts R, Tales of Innocence R and Ys: Foliage Ocean In Celceta.

Vita is going to have some really amazing games this year and I can see myself getting it.

I've always been intrigued by the Vita, I'm not waiting for more games to come out for it, I'm waiting for the price drop.

I wish they didn't add the rear touch pad and all the other stuff and just kept it simple; Front touch screen and camera, they then could of sold it much less without really losing anything significant.

Lol the back screen cost them almost nothing to make. The most expensive part of the vita is that beautiful OLED screen with gorilla glass tech. It cost a whooping $50 bucks per vita. The back touchh pad is a huge plus because there's no way the vita could be seen as a ps3/ps4 controller or game streamer without and l2/r2, l3/r3.

Yes but removing the back touch pad, one camera and the six-axis would shed off some price. The back screen is just a gimmick, one or two games may use smart use of it, but others will treat it like a tech-demo.

im hoping to see the vita play well with the ps4, i think the vita was made with the ps3 in mind, same touch, plus touch screen, if it can play games on the vita form the ps3 like the wii u but with more games then vita will do even better.

@skyrimer @supemacy Agreed Okami is the type of game that would go well on the Vita with the Touch screen for the paint brush techniques and the back touch for other things. No Okami is meant for the PS Vita, now need to convince Crapcom..er Capcom that.

you do realize you can DL all the games onto your PS3 and leave them there until you are ready to play them. Then when your ready just transfer the data from the Vita memory card to your PS3 and the game from your PS3 to your Vita memory card.

Yeah I know I can do that, but I'd rather be able to have more than just a few games downloaded on my Vita at once. I usually take my time with games and start new ones before I finish ones i'm half way through. Plus transfering games to my vita gets annoying. Having a memory card with more space and a cheaper price would just be much more convenient.

$150 would be an incredible price point! That said, it won't happen any time soon. Consider that Sony is a business, and in order to make the consoles and games that we enjoy, they must also make money. At the unrealistic expectation of a $150 price point, Sony will NOT make money. The components of the Vita cost somewhere in that vicinity, and that's NOT including marketing, shipment, etc. I think a price drop would do the Vita a lot of good, however, it's absurd to suggest that $150 is reasonable. Think about it.

It currently cost about $159 to make a vita. At $150 they would lose huge bucks on vita. Even at the current price tag profit is minimal. You are sooo cheap and need to go somewhere with your low-ballin' self. If you want a vita that cheap try a second hand one through eBay or Craigslist. I want Sony to make money so the can afford to support their products, pay their employees, and stay in business. Just be happy with even a $30 price cut. But if they drop the price to $199 be really happy. This system isn't cheap to make like the 3DS so please don't expect them to compete in price.

This is all great but I think people have completely over hyped the 20th to the point they only can set themselves up for disappointment.

One thing to randomly start saying the PS4 will be announced without any actual credible source, than to assume they will be announcing a 4G PS Vita as well!? I don't get people or why you create such hype for others.

Clearly some people are not capable of using common sense and choose to believe whatever they read.

I just really hope whatever they bring it's big enough to shut people up already. I don't want to come back here on the 20th and have to read about how everyone was so disappointed with the feb 20th announcement.

I won't be disappointed with whatever they present because I didn't start assuming it was going to be the most mind blowing thing ever and they are going to be showing off everything on top of a new PS Vita.. Which is completely ridiculous to even think about.

...but sure keep raising the hype and spreading the rumors, that is always so helpful. Every damn article I read about Playstation someone is just assuming, stating rumors as if they are factual events set to happen that were actually said to happen by Sony.

When will the masses of morons grow up, & treat Sony with equality, & stop carrying on like rabid morons about anything Sony does, turning EVERYTHING Sony does into negativity. It is getting old now, I mean, I'm sure after Sony's 2 gens of pure domination, tall poppy syndrome from American press & general onliners was a given, considering MS is the only U.S. based company that has come into the console business with a chance, so I think it became schoolyard "KOOL", to diss Sony & talk about, "giant enemy crabs that were part of historically accurate battles", & "RIIIIIIIIDGE RACER".....Krazy Ken, & all that other 6yr old, handicap kids antics..... But, the years it lasted & the 4 anti Sony jokes (including the 2 aforementioned) got real tired, real quick. I mean the "no games on PS3", & all that crap was MS fanboy imaginary moronic, mentally inept opinion......& there really wasn't much more ammo than that, other than price, which, at $100 more than 360 at that time, when PS3 had the massive added benefit of Blu-Ray, as well as inbuilt WiFi, to mention the 2 hugest & expensive advantages, that argument, or Sony bash, was null & void.

I mean, clowns who complained about PS3's $499 (20gig) & $599 (60gig), launch price point, were & more than likely still are complete morons, that should have quit gaming as soon as that thought about a $499 console price being too expensive in there basic minds, as gamers really don't worry about something that trivial, & meaningless, as the thing was priced VERY, VERY, reasonably in the U.S. (especially, as opposed to the $1000, we had to pay here in Australia).....I mean, the fact is, I even paid the $1000, without batting an eyelid, for my launch unit, & I would do it all over again, (well I will be hopefully in Oct-Nov, if Sony pull there finger out & do the right thing by us Aussies & Europeans, seeing we are far bigger supporters of there products, compared with U.S. consumers). consoles are the cheap part for a gamer.....it's the games & peripherals that the big bucks are spent on......So, lets start back with the negative stories about Sony & how it's all doom & gloom for them, & how there new console is gonna suck & be 1000 times less powerful than 720, & the more negative stories I read, the more & more it will hype me for my PS4 launch unit, I will be snapping up at midnight again. As, it makes Sony's products more enticing, when internet haters & U.S. based online gaming journos & media, are so fearful that there homeland product will cop a sales difference similar to PS2vsXbox1.......because, they have seen Sony's gear behind closed doors, & they know how bomb it's gonna be.

As an American, I completely agree. The Vita is expensive because it's a great, well made, and high tech piece of hardware. Personally, I think it's priced fairly. I feel bad for the games industry for having to deal with so many entitled gamers.

I hate to break it to you, but a company like Sony would rather focus its dollars on creating products that provide them with returns on their investment. In fact, THAT is how the market works. If Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo can't make money, then we don't play games.

Phantasy StarSoul Sacrifice, Killzone are all on my wish list. Toukiden looks pretty good, Tearaway looks to take adatage of some ita features pretty well, but we'll see. Some more cross play gaming experiences would be cool though.

It's already official that Soul Sacrifice got a US release on april 30 (EU on may 1). I don't know about lighting up the US charts, cause the way i saw it US market prefer shooter / FPS games than RPG.

For major IP (i consider this games as major IP), from the top of my head are Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2+, DoA 5+, Phantasy Star Online 2, FF X HD (cross fingers, this is SE we're talking about), and Tales of Hearts R all coming for vita this year. Maybe sony will announce new GoW, GT, CoD, or Uncharted for vita. But we still must wait on 20th Feb / E3 for that.

Meanwhile, if you like vanillaware and nihon falcom games such as Dragon's Crown, Muramasa, Ys Celceta, and Legend of Heroes: Sen no Kiseki, they will be available for vita in this year. And namco games such as God Eater 2 and One Piece: Pirate Warrior 2 also got a vita release on this year.

Well, if it's a good port / remake from great games than i don't see that as a problem. 3DS also had a lot of ports & remakes (i bought Tales of the Abyss and Zelda OoT for 3DS despite i already have them).

Vita is a great piece of hardware. I got mine on Black Friday from Amazon for $175 and it came with AC III, PSABR & 3 months of PS+. It was a deal I just couldn't pass up especially with the instant game collection with the PS+ membership. I may get screwed on the PS3 games because I already own them but Vita games I don't have to worry about that problem.